What will pass for news from this morning’s run-for-the-airport skate was James Sheppard’s presence on the ice with all of his teammates, protected by the orange “don’t hit me” jersey that players were when returning from injuries.

And Sheppard (as well as rehabbing goalie Antero Niittymaki) will be heading to Dallas and Denver this afternoon .

But don’t take that as a sign that Sheppard, who was not fully participating, will be in a game anytime soon. Because that’s not the way he — or anyone connected with the team — looks at it.

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Timetable? Terrible idea.

“I’ve done that, I’ve put times on different things and it just creates stress more than anything,” Sheppard said. “It felt good today. I don’t think I feel anywhere near where I need to be to play a hockey game.

“When the time comes, the time comes,” he added. “You can’t control the time, but you can control what you do.”

Still, Sheppard saw today’s development and the upcoming trip as big — and significant — deals.

“It was nice to get out there and feel like a hockey player again. It was fun to be out there and get the feeling back,” he said. “When you’re injured you just become injured but I’m done with that. I want to become a player and to become a player, you’ve got to hang out with the guys and become one of them and know what they do.”

The only Shark not on the ice this morning was Brad Winchester. Just a maintenance day, I’m advised.

****His fellow defensemen were ribbing Marc-Edouard Vlasic for his four-point performance against Detroit even before he entered the locker room.

“You here to interview Bobby Orr,” Douglas Murray asked me.

When I mentioned that Vlasic was, oh, a little bland in the post-game interviews, Murray said that wasn’t the case when the media wasn’t around.

Dan Boyle said Vlasic’s assist on the short-handed goal — when he simply cleared the puck down the ice on a penalty kill — was a sign of what was to come.

“You know you’re hot when you ice the puck and you get an assist,” Boyle said. “That’s when the stars are aligned.”

Vlasic, by the way, ended up being a plus-5 for the night — one shy of the franchise record held by several players, most recently Dany Heatley. That last plus was on Brad Winchester’s and initially didn’t show up on the original scoresheet or the official NHL stats.

*****Speaking of stars, the Sharks are headed to Dallas for the season’s first match-up between the teams.

Saturday night the schedule-maker did the Sharks a favor as they’ll be in their hotels while the Stars are facing the Avalanche in Denver.

But, Todd McLellan was quick to point out, the Sharks will be on the wrong side of that arrangement the following night in Colorado.

In addition, he pointed out, Colorado will be on the second-half of its back-to-backs tonight against Dallas, having lost 1-0 in Minnesota last night.

*****Dallas has cooled off after racing off to the Pacific Division lead in October, but the Stars are still a point ahead of the Sharks in the standings going into tonight’s game.

A lot of commentators and scribes (me included) pretty much wrote off the Stars in pre-season predictions, but McLellan says he isn’t surprised by what they’ve done under first-year coach Glen Gulutzan.

“You have to remember they were a pretty darn good team last year,” McLellan said. “They got into a whole bunch of injury problems in February and that hurt them a lot. They were a point out of the playoffs when all was said and done, but they’re a pretty good team.”

Players, too, said they weren’t buying Dallas as fallen stars despite what others were writing.

“All five teams in our division are capable of beating anyone,” Torrey Mitchell said. “They’ve obviously figured it out early on in the season. They’ve got some dynamic players and a really good d-corps. They’re as good as anyone.”

Veteran defenseman Sheldon Souray spent last season in the minors, but already has four goals, nine assists and a plus-8 for the Stars. Again, McLellan doesn’t seem surprised.

“This guy’s a talented, talented guy and he’s got someone who believes in him again and he’s taking advantage of it.”

*****Oops, time to run. I’ve got an afternoon plane to catch and some packing to do.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Boy, we must be winning if all we have to talk about is nicknames and giveaways…

wyldbull

People in the lower bowl get offended when I yell out to the ref after a bad call “Hey ref, does your wife know you’re screwing this game”?

People in the upper bowl cheer and applaud. nuf said!!!

GO SHARKS!!!

Dirty

People in the lower bowl leave the game with time left on the clock and hopes that it turns into a sale.
People in the upper-bowl cringe when the popcorn/peanut man comes around and hope the kids don’t hear/see him. They do mental math as the game progresses and think about the extra hours that will have to go in to cover this one. And they damn well stick around for the final buzzer and player comments even if it means having to put up with the eerie Muppetesque eyes of Brody B. Later on in the struggle to escape the parking lot, Rusanowski is on the radio with goal replays, the youngest looking at the pics she took with Sharkie, the Tween proclaiming her love for PM because he’s, “like, really hot”, and the oldest staring out the window sullenly acting like he isn’t listening or even there, for that matter; the guy from the upper bowl raises a callused hand and waves at the other driver who so kindly let him in line. He sighs happily to no one in particular and mutters to himself, “to hell with it” before saying, “Who wants a milkshake??”